Several days past away while as they crossed the mountains, coming close to Gravity Mountain. Emma started talking to Destiny about her past, Aurora listened in. “I am much older than my husband by at least a close hundred years. Actually I am that of being eighty-five years past his birth point. And of course that was around a hundred and sixty-four years ago.” A vague smile pressed the lips of the female wizard as she asked. “Can you tell us more of how you two met?! Have you always been happy together?! Can you describe love?!”
     Instantly at that. Aurora, Malachite, and Emma turned their attention to the grumpy wizard. Twinkling light sparkled in their known direction. Nexious was far off in the distance of the starting point of their trek up Gravity Mountain. It was apparent he did not want to participate in the squabbles of romance.
     Emma bent her head down, speaking in a solemn tone. “Tis would be nice to know what plagues him. To me, it seems as if he is forcing himself to be somebody he is not.” Malachite chipped in and changed the subject. “Can you, my love? Tell them about how I became king of Sisyphean. I almost never get tired of hearing it from you.” Perplexed, Aurora squinted a little at him. The king elaborated, taking the uncertainty away. “Parts of my story telling are not so great. Usually I just bore others.” The warrior accepted that and let the queen tell her version of the story.
     The queen of Sisyphean sighed and continued. “As you all may not know, Malachite had an elder brother, his name was Pavillon. After their parents died, he inherited Zinnia, afterwards he tried to claim Sisyphean as well. At that time, his sister was the queen of that kingdom at the time and Malachite was too young to rule anywhere. Sapphire, she was a very eminent and noble lady, who thrived on seeing others happy. She didn’t want her kingdom to suffer the same fate when her elder brother was known for his cruelty and lies. At the time of his invasion, she convinced her brother to have a proper dinner beforehand. She tricked Pavillon into telling her that he murdered their parents to gain power. After the shock of his treasury, Sapphire challenged him to a duel and won. His penalty was death.” Destiny stopped Emma for a bit. “That seemed kind of rash of Sapphire! Why did she have her own brother killed?!”
     Hearing the child’s confusion of right and wrong, Malachite solicited his opinion. “My sister rules her kingdom with a fair but righteous hand. Many things can be said of what should have happened… but it did. The enemy was right there in front of her, rather than throw him in jail, she made him an example how evil can not go unpunished. I do not know how you feel about my sister now… but she is a very nice woman and is pleasant to be around, but she just can not tolerate injustice wherever it is. I hope you can understand one these days why it came to that.” Destiny nodded her head and partook over her knowledge. “I lost…” Sensing danger in the child’s tone, Aurora chipped in quickly. “We should hurry along so Nexious doesn’t get angry.” The female warrior pulled the child over to the side where no one could hear them. “Please don’t tell them that your mother was killed”
     “Why?” The child asked in a confusing tone.
     “I don’t want anyone to know your tragedy, and mine. Please bear in mind that they will probably coddle you more if they know, okay.
     “Who was that man to you, the one that protected me?”
     Aurora rubbed the wizard’s hair. “Don’t worry about that now. I’ll tell you later.” The group came near the madman, he was informally attuned to their presence as he stated. “Warrior, when however are to tell your newfound friends why you are here?!” Perplexed as usually when he spoke to her, Aurora asked. “What do you mean by that? Why am I here?” Nexious gave her a stern look. “Shall I tell them about Kreeve or do you want to”
     Stopped dead in her tracks, Aurora questioned herself of how he knew. Nexious let out a half laugh. “Not going to tell them of their upcoming doom, are you? Is ignorance bliss or is it fallible of you to believe that they are actually your friends that you want to protect them? Do you think keeping the truth from them will make this go away?” Malachite and the others looked at Aurora, then at the madman like he was crazy. Nexious continued. “Dooms day is approaching and our world is in the brink of being destroyed.” Hearing this, the female warrior was still not convinced of his knowledge of her previous mission.
     The madman let out an unsettling cackle that made the party tremble in shock. “Silly girl! There is no switch!” The king started to question the sanity of the master wizard. “What are you talking about?!” Feeling like they were headless without him. The madman explained. “The warriors are being set up. They came precisely over to Yarrow to detain as many abundant towns and kingdoms as possible. Trying to find… undoubtedly an object that seems to be a mirage.” The others took the information but were still confused. Aurora started to question the wizard of this info but he interrupted her. “In a few more months, most assuredly… Kreeve will wreak havoc on the planet by killing everyone. With Kreeve’s power alone… he can do it.”
     “Rather than questioning my sanity. Let continue on.” Nexious urged. Attention drawn to climbing the mighty mountain that penetrated into the clouds, the adventurers sought glory to be found. On the other side of their minds, who in right mind would go live in place like this? Insane!
     Before they entered into apart of the cave, Nexious stopped and started to brood. “Even Gigantos is going to have a hard time of taking Kreeve down. I wonder if…” He cut himself off. Aurora pondered what was going on. “Nexi…?” The madman interrupted her, stopping her question. “I found out who murdered my parents.”
     Everyone was silent and wondered if he should be on this topic. Nexious replied. “They were royals… seeking power. To them my parents were a simple obstacle. When I confronted them, they didn’t even mention how remorseful or say anything about them.” He turned to them with a solemn face on. “When I was young, they taught me practically everything there was to know. Mannerisms, etiquette, fighting, studying, knowledge, friendship, material gain of misconceptions, history, station, love, hate, and other emotions. Like my ancestors before me, I could read a really long book in twenty minutes, so I practically knew what they were teaching me.”
     Destiny cried out, lines of embarrassment creasing her face. “Twenty minutes!!! How long was a book to you?!” Unnerved, Nexious replied. “Approximately a thousand pages per twenty minutes. But I can do that at lot better now.”
     The others watched as the child started to panic in a manic state. “Better?!! Me, I can only read a hund-re-d page book… like in… a day.” Aurora grunted while sloping back forward with her hands hanging down loosely. “Geez… you are stupid, for real.” She resumed her position in a brisk manner and eyed the supposed genius that was standing before them. “Soo… how good are you now? You know? At reading?” As casual as ever the genius replied. “About ten seconds to read a long book and about a minute to read a dictionary and actually understand it. I have to memorize everything that might be useful to me.”
     Aurora started to have a stomach ach, there’s no way he can be that smart. Malachite mentioned something bold. “You mentioned your parents teaching you about manners. Did you somehow forget to use them when speaking to others?” Nexious regarded the man with some of his knowledge. “Manners can be used for good. For the good of getting what’s someone else has. Blind loyalty is a good one. You can deceive others with a smile and steal everything they have with their backs turned. Dying in battle for another one’s prosperity and wealth. Deciding who’s AGAINST you or FOR you. And of course, to find your soul mate, choose what your heart desires.”
     Negativity flowed through the man that knew of despair, the group just stared at him hoping for some sign that he wasn’t despicable as they thought he was. Nexious spoke up once more. “When I was fifty years old, my parents sent me out to find a wife. Manners… intentional manners are practically outdated. Everyone saw strength in confidence. When I found my parents dead I sought to avenge them and destroyed a royal kingdom that did it. It didn’t make me feel any better… so I hid up here. My new home.”
     The information was quite disturbing.

     Walking through the darkness of the cave inside Gravity Mountain, radiant light shone on the staff of the apprentice wizard’s hand, illuminating dark crevices and huge dirt spikes decorated on the floor surface.
     As the heroine party trekked up hills and mazes, Aurora pondered about Nexious’ past, she decided things didn’t add up correctly. If he had enough power to destroy an entire kingdom, don’t you think he could’ve saved his girlfriend then. What changed so quickly that he’d challenge anything? All of this doesn’t add up at all. His love life? Knowing death was the consequence? -Also-?
     “Sooo…?” Nexious cut off the warrior’s question with a blunt attitude. “What do you want now?!” Aurora started to grasp the obvious that this madman never had a cool head. “Umm… You live here… in this dank, dark cave?” Regarding her question, Nexious spoke up. “I live on the top.”
     “So who is Liana to you?” Aurora asked slyly. That question merited her a few stares. Nexious just shrugged not saying a thing.
     The Female warrior sighed heavily as they all continued trekked through mazes and vast open spaces. Suddenly a tiny tremor came about and spooked Emma. “What is that?!”
     Aurora and Destiny just turned their heads toward the informant wizard. He just chuckled. “Heh Heh, it’s about time he showed up. I’m starting to wonder if he’s defective now.” Everyone just stared at him like he was a loon. Aurora got serious. “What the devil are you bantering about? This is no time for games!”
     With a smirk on the madman’s face, he thrust his thumb over his shoulder. “Shine the light behind me.” Skeptical, Destiny raised her bright hand behind Nexious. Several yards away, the florescent light took shape of a seemingly huge earthworm poised to the ceiling in attack stance. Upon being discovered, the worm’s head corroded into vicious teeth and it let out a menacing rasp as slimy juices spat out everywhere. Sharp blades sprung out of its body depicting what seemed to be legs.
     Everyone but Nexious gasped in great peril. “There’s no way I’m fighting that monster! It’s huge! It’s TOO BIG!!” Aurora shouted out her lament of doom.
     Nexious just glanced behind and smirked. “I guess techniqucly since you all are weaklings and that you would have no chance against this behemoth. Hmm… I wonder if he recognizes me still… no matter, looks like I have to put him down.” At that, the professional wizard faced the beast and sauntered over to it.
     Before the worm could react to the threat, Nexious thrust his right hand palm toward its head and shouted. “Veritable Tribute CRUSH!!” A dish of colors appeared before the heroic wizard, spiraling in every which way. Electric pulses thrust outward from the worm like a wavy spring sauna, the worm’s screams echoed throughout the cavern as a magnitude of shockwaves emitted from the colors of light and formed into currents of tiny electrodes that shot out toward the huge worm’s body, frying the creature to oblivion.
     Nexious let down his guard and walked over to the group while the enemy still wasn’t dead. The creature let out a roar of rage.
     “Is it dead… o-r not?” Destiny pressed. He just shrugged, saying. “He’s all yours now. He should be tough enough for your all’s caliber! Hop to it!” The warrior just gave him a sour look. “You’ve got to be joking, right?!” Glaring with evil eyes at her, Nexious bit out. “Does this face look like its joking?! Move it! Kill it!”
     “Heh, hheh.” The mumbling warrior carefully laid out her main sword as she brandished it… then with quick stealth, she came upon the beast. With plenty of experience, Aurora pierced the front of the worm’s scales. Knowing something was amiss when her sword came through the beast like there was no density, also there were no slash marks left behind.
     Before the warrior could ponder anymore, one of the leg’s shaped-like shears from the left came at her horizontally as it rode through the worm’s body like translucent water. Nimble on her feet she back-pedaled… just missing the danger as it came to the right side and back to where it came like a wary figure.
     Aurora regrouped with the others as Nexious stated. “Just to let you know, even though I reduced his strength by a great margin… he still is a potential threat to any warrior or wizard: technically, as a warrior, this centi-worm can not be harmed by any means to physical attacks or debris. For a wizard, they have to keep at a constant pace to actually keep away from the beast while casting… not many has let loose a second spell when the centi-worm gets serious.”
     Everyone felt inadequate when he let loose his last word. “Suppose… maybe you could help us?” Aurora asked tensely. The madman just regarded her aloofly. “Don’t think you can win, well, at least try your best. You don’t need me in this battle any further.” The warrior gave him a wary look, but he continued. “He’s weak against the ice element. Use that to your advantage. Also, I want you to head into battle with the warrior.” Nexious pointed to the apprentice wizard. Destiny was anything but stoical when she was appointed to battle the odious beast.
     The enemy took the time to rev up its body into a twirling turbine and trusted his tail at the party like a huge a battering ram. Unforeseen, the beast was tossed back into the far wall as the attack connected with a translucent barrier covering the party.
     “You all shouldn’t have the luxury of gawking! This is a battle! I’m sure you two will be fine, now move!” Reluctant, the heroine duo complied to the madman’s banter. Aurora applied an ice download to her sword as she neared the discomforted but up and ready worm. Getting into position, Destiny adorned a collusive barrier of ice around her… she prepared another spell.
     More vigilant than before, as if knowing its chances, the odious beast began its attack once more with frightening speed. Aurora, quick on her, jumped into the air, high enough to easily avoid the turbine end from the right. Destiny was not so fortunate as it came upon her…
     A blue light shone on top of the apprentice’s staff and pulled the wizard upward… just missing a brutal onslaught. Malachite and Emma turned to the madman; his eyes were bathed in a flowing mystical light of blue. He ignored them, not caring. The king was starting to get the picture of the current events, while the queen just turned her attention to the battle.
     Aurora watched as the wizard in training floated down majestically; she pondered while careful enough to know the enemy was still there. The power of that staff, I wonder who it belongs to? Maybe I should ask…
     Striking the creature with her sword, it left behind a gash that seemed small. The creature let out a hiss of rage, next it attacked by trying to bite its opponents. Aurora shifted to the side and prepared another onslaught, the worm followed her.
     Seemingly forgotten, Destiny plunged forth into the artic winds for vast destruction, evoking from her hand a large blizzard as it burst forth and trailed its way to the beast. The warrior too brought forth a barrage of icicles. Ice and snow pelted the creature as its skin started to melt, with anew rage, the beast switched tactics and shot energy beams from its mouth.
     Bracing for impact from the colorless ball heading toward her, Destiny increased her protection. Blue light shone again on its own and pushed the wizard to safety. The apprentice wizard started to be real appreciative as she continued her magic’s of domination over the bewildered creature.
     Through the power of the staff, the battle seemed to go smoothly. At the very end, Aurora stuck the creature and ended its rein of terror. Beaten and battered, the warrior ate an herb while she sauntered over to the group, Destiny followed her.
     As the apprentice wizard neared while being happy and exhausted, Malachite congratulated them. The queen too shook both of their hands, thanking them. Nexious turned and walked toward his destination, away from the group. Feeling weary with prudence, the warrior asked him. “Aren’t you going to lecture us? You know, on our faults?” Nexious let out a laugh and spoke up. “Enjoy your victory! Try not to dwell on trivial matters now!”
     The king brought up a question that peaked everyone’s interest. “Is that your staff that Destiny is carrying?” But the madman ignored him and continued to leave.

     The heroic party reached the top of the mountain seeing nothing but an empty space, gusts of dirt flapped around the flat surface of the basin, all but Nexious gawked at the unsightly proclaimed home of the most powerful wizard in all history. Nexious took a few steps forward and swiveled toward them and said in a booming voice. “This is my home! Remember, if any of tells anyone about this, I sure as well will be the first of it… and your untimely death! Okay?!”
     Snickering came from the child as she roiled over covering her stomach with both arms. Emma just touched her mouth stifling a chuckle coming forth. The young king felt it needed a good sigh to mix in with the commotion. “He is insane.”
     Aurora just glared at him. “Are you mad?!! This is your home?! You gotta be @$%&’ me! No way can this be your home! Why the heck did we fight that huge creature in the first place?!”
     Nexious smirked, ignoring their plighted reactions. “That was the guardian of this mountain and it was a very good experience for you.” The female was pissed and took no prisoners; this man was no exception to freedom of stringing them around. “What the $^#@ did bring us here if there’s nothing here?! Does it make you proud that you gave these dramatic speeches while bringing us all to a steel wall?!! Huh?! Idiot!!” Malachite and the queen looked at one another it a sort quivering look in their eyes. Destiny just fell to the ground laughing. “She said $^#@! Did you hear her?! Wee he he ah hahaha!”
     Turning away from the group and the madman walked a few feet away. “I remember my first boss battle. Doesn’t it leave a great experience behind? You only get that feeling once, you should treasure it.” Nexious turned his attention to his home. “Main password: Oregani!”
     A cybernetic glyph appeared before the madman like a transparent sheet. “Secondary password: Black sea knight. Final password: Liana, Borage, Tegenaria, Bay, Fulcrum, Raffia, Atlas.” Flashing textured winds circled around the basin of the mountain and claimed the center of it. Flickers of holographic and brief images appeared in the distance, giving transparent shape of a huge fortress. The screen in front of Nexious cackled out like a rebooting computer and out of the glimmering wind came a structure-like temple.
     All of them gawked at the real home of the master wizard, it was HUGE!! “That’s your home?!!” They all said. Nexious turned around, stating. “Not very articulate of any of you to judge what you all see with your own eyes. Let’s go.”
     As they walked through the temple gates, what their unfamiliar eyes beheld was that of a magnificent paradise. Everything was stacked neatly except for the stacks of pailez that held crowns and amulets made of gold. Guns, crystals, tons of bookshelves with a strenuous amount books on it, more crystals, ancient weapons and artillery, masses amounts of more crystal piles, Furniture, did I mention pailez crystals already AND HUGE amounts of crystals to make an entire world retire.
     “Wow! Nice place you got here!” The child chimed. Nexious just shrugged. Taking the whole scene of the most fabulous beauties he ever seen, Malachite curiously commented. “This is definitely bigger than any treasury I have ever seen. I wonder where it all came from.” As the madman kept walking down the narrow but clean path, he ignored him and said. “Don’t touch anything and do not wander around. Got that?!”
     The front hall was enormous as they all walked past everything, looking at all the crates of oddities. The only sound was their clamping steps on the tile of an ancient stone, toward another enormous door hinged up high above them, the door opened by it’s self and let the party in. Nothing was in the next room except darkness, blue lines repeatedly spun around the void as if mimicking a frame of limitation. Nexious held out his hand, silvery light shone on it and everything materialized in front of them.
     A table stood in the room with many chairs symbolized that this was a conference room. Dozens of doors were implemented on each side of the walls. Nexious held out his arm in a waving motion. “To the right are your rooms for tonight, you have thousands of choices to choose from, okay. Next to the left are the kitchens. And up ahead, don’t go in there. Okay?!” He turned to them. “As for me, I will retire to my room now.” He teleported away before anyone could even ask anything.
     Even more mysterious than he appeared, everyone started asking questions about his attire and his living conditions.

     Later in the night, Aurora and Destiny sauntered to the forbidden rooms and both of them entered the same room. A huge library presented itself in front of them. In the center of the library was a staff with runes, spunky alien language was carved on top of the head, the head was shaped of that of a line interfacing with one another. A glass case stood holding the staff as it held upright.
     “Let us look around some. Right, I will go over here!” Destiny started in the other direction but galloped into one of the bookshelves. “Owwy owow… that hurt! Ooopps!” The child declared as the shelf fell onto another shelf and did the same to that one. Thousands of books were now scattered on the floor along with the heaping bookshelves. Destiny apologized somewhat. “Sorry! At least all the books are not on the floor!” Glaring at her, Aurora ran to other end of the mess past the staff that they saw. “You clean there and I’ll clean over here.”
     As the warrior rounded the mess of books at the end of library, she saw a certain book stick out the most having large letters. This book was a black, hard backed, with gold linings as decoration. It read “WARNING: All Life Will Cease to Exist”. Curious, the warrior stared at the title and flipped the book open. It was the back of book. She turned it over and recited the real name of the book. “Book of Oracles”. Thinking nothing of it, she opened it again and read the first page.
     It stated. “A being without a body, mind, and soul will be born from concentrated magic of light and dark, he will know no one.
     The evil foul creature will destroy planets and all life without remorse or pity, also no gratification will come from it. His true goal is to kill until the universe is bright red with blood, then shed some more blood for the color of it.
     His power will become so great that will lead him to the Pearly Gates of heaven and destroy it. All the angels shall perish by his hand, including Lucifer.
     The foul demon is destined to grapple with almighty Deity.”
     Aurora turned the other pages but the text was in a language she didn’t know. At that she confiscated the book and kept it in her satchel.
     Nexious appeared through the door they came in. “Please get away from here! Must you become such imbecilic nuisances! Insufferable!” The apprentice backed up from her mediocre stack of her organizing work. A hollow blinking mixture flowed in between the books and the bookshelves, automatically everything went into proper order and the room seemed spic and span.
     Aurora walked toward the entrance. “Do like this staff the most?!” She asked innocently with disdain interest. Furiously the madman wanted to crush her. “That’s none of your &^$@’ freaking @$%# business?! Is it?!!! Get the hell out of here and stay in your rooms until I say otherwise.”
     The duo left together, heading for their rooms. Aurora commented. “Geezzz, what a grouch.”
     Destiny snickered.

     The morning came and everyone had their fill. Nexious showed up with a dazzling way of teleporting, as usual. Malachite commented to him. “Are you not a morning fellow? Are you not going to eat?” As always the late comer replied. “Not hungry, I’ll eat some other time.”
     Emma spoke up with deference in her voice. “When should we all have a meeting of what we should do to help our land?” Nexious replied bluntly. “That will not be necessary. I have already made arrangements of where we should go next.”
     Skeptical about his future with this madman, the king asked. “Where by chance are you leading us now?” Noticing everybody’s anticipation, Nexious’ answer rang true. “Suit up! We’re to heading to Omnilot!”
     The party looked at him as if he was out of his mind. Nexious ignored them as he strode to the entrance of the temple. Aurora went silent as her status was kind of obvious. “Honey, do you know where Omnilot is?” Emma questioned. Malachite, not knowing anything, thought it was okay to talk about it. “No, I do not. What I do know is that it is very well hidden from the public and is very hard to be reassigned there as a member wizard. They even have rank classes.”
     Everyone got dressed properly and had the same attire on as before they came here. An impatient Nexious waited as they came near, he was fuming. “Took you all long enough! Let’s go!” Aurora grabbed hold of his arm. “Why are you dragging us around all over the place?! What’s your deal?!” Responding to her question, the madman retorted. “There are many reasons why I am stringing you all along! You need practice and actual experience to fight on ahead! Moreover, you all would be dead if I left you all to your undeniably autonomy! Plus you can’t think straight to help yourselves get out of a bind, your enemies are stronger than you, and there’s a cyborg out there waiting to destroy everything at any moment! There! That should be enough of a reason to listen to me!”
     The party left uncomfortably with a more fuming madman to deal with. Everyone but Nexious was oblivious to a presence in the shadows of the dark chasms. It followed them.

Many thanks to the people reading this!  Make sure to *pop* this story if you like it so far.  Anyway, my favorite chapter is next, Enough's Enough.  This is the part where the heroine party battles an entire thief brigade, their leader... Shi-phon.  After that, more drama tunnels its way into Nexious' life, making him force his hand...